The present invention is directed to a storage rack assembly having a plurality of horizontal shelves which are used for supporting and storing archive-boxes, which boxes are typically filled with old books, manuscripts, papers, and the like. These archive storage-rack assemblies are typically placed in large warehouses, or archives, usually at colleges, universities, government agencies, and the like. The height of each storage-rack assembly approaches the height of the ceiling of the archive-building itself, in order to maximize storage-capacity. In fact, it has been found that by a space-saving of just a fraction of an inch on each supporting rack of a storage-rack assembly, the total storage-capacity of the entire archive-warehouse may be considerably increased, which can lead to considerable cost-savings.
The conventional, prior-art, archive storage-rack assembly utilizes a series of horizontal shelves supported by four corner-columns. Each shelf, in turn, has individual, separate, elongated shelf-reinforcement angle-brackets and elongated box-guides, with one such angle-bracket and one such box-guide being operatively associated with each of the two, supported, lateral ends of the shelf. Each angle-bracket is placed interiorly of the respective shelf-end, while the associated box-guide is placed exteriorly of the respective shelf-end, with the respective angle-bracket and box-guide sandwiching therebetween the shelf-end and fastened thereto via rivets. The box-guide projects upwardly to provide a vertical surface against which archive storage-boxes are aligned during storage on the shelf. Each shelf of the assembly is supported at its four corners via four, separate, removable shelf-clips, each of which has a lower, main portion supported by fingers received in holes formed in a respective corner-column, and an upper shelf-engaging portion that projects into slots formed in the corners of the shelf, whereby the shelf is supported.
The above-described, prior-art, archive storage-rack assembly suffers from many disadvantages. Firstly, it is a difficult task to pre-assemble each shelf with its associated angle-brackets and box-guides. Secondly, once assembled, this shelf-combination is cumbersome to emplace on the rack-assembly, owing to the greater weight and bulk thereof. Thirdly, and very importantly, the prior-art assembly's box-guides and lower, main portions of the shelf-clips take up valuable space that could otherwise be used as actual storage space. Fourthly, the prior-art assembly is relatively costly to produce and less stable as compared to the rack-assembly of the present invention.